Issues

Stage Details

Vote Result

Yea Votes

Nay Votes

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that provides federal funding for certain jurisdictions to obtain paper ballot voting systems or to conduct audits or hand counts of results for the general elections for federal office to be held in November 2008.

Highlights:

Requires that the Election Assistance Commission pay eligible jurisdictions to cover the costs of conversion to a paper ballot voting system or to cover the costs of retrofitting electronic voting systems to produce paper records (Sec. 2).

Requires that the Election Assistance Commission pay states to cover the costs of conducting any necessary manual audits of results from federal elections taking place in November 2008 and, at the option of the state, results from state and local elections taking place at the same time (Sec. 3).

Requires that the Election Assistance Commission pay states to cover the costs of conducting any necessary hand counts of results from federal elections taking place in November 2008 (Sec. 4).

Mandates that the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall study, test, and develop products and practices that ensure the accessibility of paper ballot verification and casting for disabled voters, for voters whose primary language is not English, and for voters with literacy difficulties (Sec. 5).

Note:

NOTE: THIS VOTE WAS TAKEN UNDER A SUSPENSION OF THE RULES TO CUT OFF DEBATE EARLY AND VOTE TO PASS THE BILL, THEREBY REQUIRING A TWO-THIRDS MAJORITY FOR PASSAGE.

NOTE: THIS IS A SUBSTITUTE BILL, MEANING THE LANGUAGE OF THE ORIGINAL BILL HAS BEEN REPLACED. THE DEGREE TO WHICH THE SUBSTITUTE BILL TEXT DIFFERS FROM THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE TEXT CAN VARY GREATLY.